Margo Bartlett Pesek writes about day trips from Las Vegas and information about the surrounding areas. Her column appears Sunday in Travel/Living.
Nevada’s vast regions of public lands contain hundreds of intriguing sites where its ancient human history is written on the rocks. Over several thousand years, various cultures living in what is now Nevada left a rich heritage of rock art in the form of petroglyphs and pictrographs. Visiting some of the most accessible sites provides glimpses at the mysterious past long before European settlers arrived on this continent.
A little-known oasis of natural warm springs, meandering creeks and thick stands of palm trees lies less than an hour’s drive from Las Vegas in Moapa Valley. Once a popular destination for swimming and picnics, Warm Springs became part of a national wildlife refuge in 1979, dedicated to the preservation of endangered fish and other unique native species.
The Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley Junction, Calif., celebrates 42 seasons of live theater this winter with weekend presentations at 7 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sunday matinees. Seating starts a half-hour before performances. Opening in mid-November, the 2009-2010 season concludes with shows on the first weekend in May.
During the next month, thousands of “citizen scientists” will participate in the 110th Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. Braving cold and often inclement conditions, these volunteers assemble before dawn in pre-selected locations between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5 to tally the birds they see during a full day in the outdoors. In Nevada, counts are planned for locations in Southern Nevada, as well as sites near Elko, Snake Valley near Great Basin National Park, Carson City and Minden.
Death Valley Ranch, the remote Moorish-styled mansion in Death Valley National Park better known as Scotty’s Castle, continues to fascinate visitors as it has for more than 85 years. Located in Grapevine Canyon, the ranch served as a vacation retreat for wealthy Chicago businessman Albert Johnson and his wife, Bessie. Introduced to the desert in the early 1900s by Walter Scott, a colorful character known as Death Valley Scotty, the Johnsons developed a campsite, then decided to build a grand house. Construction began in 1924, but was never completed. The Johnsons provided the funds and Scotty the notoriety.
The nostalgic scenes of the family trek to the woods to cut the holiday tree exist only on Christmas cards for most urban Americans. The closest they come to that festive expedition is a trip to the temporarily forested tree lots that spring up seasonally in every American city. The tradition survives, however, in areas where private tree plantations allow cutting and on portions of forested public lands where tree cutters pay small fees for limited number of trees.
An impressive display of ancient American Indian rock art decorates granite boulders at the mouth of Grapevine Canyon, a desert oasis near Laughlin. Located along the scenic Christmas Tree Pass Road, Grapevine Canyon provides opportunities for hiking, exploring and tailgate picnicking, and is best enjoyed during the cooler months of the year.
A delightful cool-season destination, Rogers Spring in Lake Mead National Recreation Area provides opportunities for picnicking, hiking and exploration. The natural oasis features a shallow pool fed by a warm spring shaded by palms, tamarisk and other vegetation. The overflow creates a meandering creek that heads toward Lake Mead. A few hundred yards distant, tiny Blue Point Spring supports more trees and marshy undergrowth.
A popular autumn event for the past 14 years, the Moapa Valley Art Guild’s Pomegranate Art Festival will take place for the first time at the Clark County Fairgrounds in Logandale from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. With record attendance and parking problems in 2008, the Pomegranate Art Festival outgrew its location at the Old Logandale School. Just a mile away, the fairgrounds provide plenty of safe, off-highway parking and room for indoor and outdoor booths and activities. The event welcomes visitors free of charge.
Death Valley National Park welcomes the 60th annual Death Valley ’49ers Encampment Nov. 4-8. During the park’s most popular special event, thousands of participants fill Death Valley campgrounds, hotels and resorts, spilling over into nearby desert towns.
The last week in October remains special for Nevadans as they observe 145 years of statehood in various ways. Official celebration of the state’s birthday centers annually in Carson City, but other cities in Nevada plan special events as well.
Zion National Park’s colorful autumn foliage delights visitors through a long, beautiful season. Early color among the stands of aspens in the park’s high back country peaks in mid-October and rapidly disappears. Just now beginning to show, the color in the park’s canyons lingers well into November along the Virgin River and other watercourses and in the Kolob portion of the park. Cottonwoods, box elder, maple and others do their best for visitors during coming weeks.
Joining a national trend of proliferating vineyards and wineries, Nevada’s fledgling wine industry now numbers three wineries, one each in Pahrump Valley in Southern Nevada, in the Lahontan Valley near Fallon and in the Carson Valley near Genoa. Each offers a different experience for visitors and a new attraction for increased tourism.
In its gold mining heyday, Oatman, Ariz., claimed 10,000 residents and thousands of travelers passing through on Route 66, America’s “Mother Road.” Today, the ghost town thrives on tourism, with half a million people annually finding their way to this unusual town where wild desert burros begging for snacks have the right-of-way and gunslingers battle on the main drag several times a day.
The beautiful and sometimes boisterous Santa Clara River in southwestern Utah provides scenery and recreation from its source in the Pine Valley Mountains to its end, where it joins the Virgin River near St. George. Fishermen, boaters, hikers, mountain bikers, campers and scenery-seeking travelers follow the little river to find outdoor enjoyment from the region’s major attractions.
